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Notes:

Rob Douglas is a young black man who was just released from prison after serving time for his second conviction of a petty crime. After enjoying only a few minutes of freedom, he finds himself falsely implicated in a crime that if convicted, would give him his third strike and send him to prison for 25 years to life. Determined to avoid that third strike at any, Rob flees the scene.

It would be much too easy to say that 3 Strikes has three strikes against it. But that comment would also give this lame, lewd, lowest-brow comedy more credit than it deserves, for it has far more than three strikes against it. But for the sake of clarity--and for the sake of a cheap and obvious metaphor--I'll keep it at three: (1) there's no real plot; (2) it's not funny; (3) we simply don't care. So much for this film having any chance of being any good.

It sounded like a plan: after his release from L.A. County Jail, Rob Douglas (Brian Hooks) is supposed to get a lift back to the 'hood from his boy Tone (Faizon Love). But Tone, who has an eye for the ladies, gets sidetracked by a honey on the way and instead asks J.J. (De'Aundre Bonds) to scoop Rob up outside the jail. Even though he was expecting Tone, Rob jumps into J.J.'s smooth new ride and the two share a "special smoke" as they roll out. But before Rob can reach his destination, there's an LAPD cruiser in the rear view mirror. Turns out that J.J.'s "new" ride is stolen and he's not goin' down without a fight. Rob narrowly escapes during J.J.'s shoot out, and the police are determined to find J.J.'s "accomplice" in the crime.

Things go from bad to worse when the story of the shoot out hits the local news.
J.J. was wounded in a delicate region and is trussed up in a harness in the police infirmary. Even the governor is weighing in on the possible three strikes punishment for the missing accomplice in the shoot out. Detective Jenkins (David Alan Grier) is assigned to this high-profile case, but he's burdened by a police artist who can only draw the face of the same black suspect with different hairstyles!

And as it turns out, Tone is looking for Rob, too! Even though it's Tone's fault that he wasn't there to pick Rob up, he's angry at Rob for leaving J.J. "stuck on stupid" instead of backing the brother up in the shoot out.

On a wing and a prayer, Rob heads to First AME Church the only shelter he can find, and where he hopes a pre-arranged meeting with the news media will help him put an end to his troubles. But with Tone, Detective Jenkins, the LAPD and a SWAT team on his trail, it's a foot race to freedom. . .or a third strike for Rob!